Snow For The Locals!

Snowy Market Greetings From Phil of Douds-Floyd Farm, Dick of
McElhaney Family Farm, & Wayne of Oak Spring Farm!

What a way to get in the Christmas spirit!  Only one more market day left on Saturday 12/21 at the Beaver Farmers' Market, but the farmers & vendors were out today in the snow for their loyal customers.  LFLF got there around 11:45 to select our Christmas wreaths from May-Malone Farm & pick up some Christmas cookies from Pats' Pastries.  

Wreath Customers At May-Malone Farm

The vendors and customers had to deal with the falling snow and slush in the parking lot, but they were still out there. 

Snow Covered Kale At Enon Country Gardens

Wood Street Bread Company Serves Up The Fresh Bread!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Finally, we picked up a head of cabbage for cabbage & noodles and a gallon of cider pressed on Wednesday from Oak Spring Farm .......
Something I just noticed ...... it's near market end, but all of the customers are different people in the pictures.  We muffed a picture of shoppers buying beef from McElhaney Family Farm --- too blurry in a bit of a snow squall when we snapped the pic! 

Winter Squash, Cabbage, & Golden Delicious Apples

Big Summer Crowd!

The Ambridge Farmers' Market was in full swing on Thursday with a really nice crowd shopping all of the booths.  Today was the first Thursday that LFLF found a really good supply of all kinds of tomatoes and of course, the summer squashes and even a couple of winter squashes were available. 

May-Malone Farm had these great tomatoes and hot peppers ...... a bag of the Juliet tomaotes and the yellow pears came home to make a couple of tomato salads.  Just cut the tomatoes, add onion, salt, pepper, vinegar, & oil and it's ready to go!  

Remember the call for volunteers for cooking demos?  Renee from the Beaver County Penn State Extension office was at the market with recipes and a veggie pasta salad demo.  Very tasty!  More cooks and more demos are to come.   

Shop Like You Mean It!

Today there was a "goal" or purpose to shopping at the Ambridge Farmers' Market. I'm on tap for a "sidedish" (NOT a salad) for a picnic dinner meeting tomorrow night. Since the committee is part of Penn State Cooperative Extension in Beaver County, it's only appropriate that fresh local farm products go into the the dish, right? So what's in season? Well, new potatoes are abundant right now, so we're having "Garlic & Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes ..... it had to be something that could be popped into the microwave to heat up after work. The new potatoes are from Dave (see the post from June 18th) & the garlic scapes & parsley are from Douds-Floyd Farm . The fresh rosemary is from plants that I overwintered on the kitchen windowsill. Now that's local!
I can smell the aroma from the kitchen as I write .... & rounded out by a couple of other items ...... fresh black raspberries from May-Malone Farm, yellow summer squash from Volkar's Farm, and chocolate/black walnut bars from Pat, the baker.

Also --- if you're interested in preserving your own food & farmers' market produce to enjoy all year, take a look at the brochure for a 3 hour class coming up at the end of July in Beaver County. This is perfect timing ..... right at the peak of canning season. Pat Leach, a former Penn State Cooperative Extension Sr. Educator from Indiana County will be leading the workshop. I worked with Pat at PSCE and she is an expert on the subject. You've heard of Penn State Master Gardeners, right? Well, Pat is a Penn State Master Food Preserver!

Click here for a copy of the program brochure. These programs are really popular right now. A similar program put on by PSCE in June at Janoski's Farm in Clinton had about 50 people in attendance.